Monthly Archives: May 2015

Have you ever wondered (okay, probably not, but I’m going to tell you anyway!) WHERE and HOW DJs get all their awesome music, and keep up with what’s hot?

How do professional DJs get all the hits BEFORE they’re hits, and before YOU want to hear them at your party, wedding, or special event?

Professional music subscriptions for DJs help us stay current!

With all the different genres and charts, keeping up on it all sure does seem like an impossible task. Heck, to do it right would be a full-time job all on its own!

Luckily for us DJs – AND OUR CLIENTS – there are folks who’s job is just that!

While DJs will get the occasional odd request or random new track from the same types of legal music purchasing outlets you would (iTunes, Amazon.com, etc.), once we have a solid physical library built, we keep ourselves current across all the major genres and radio formats by subscribing to weekly and monthly music services like Prime Cuts music, shown in the picture here.

Each week, I get access to the newest downloads, and then I get the discs as well!

Why is it better?

Using these subscription services is more efficient, and economical that trying to pay per-song for all of the songs you might need to get to keep up.

That’s one benefit for us that works its way down to you, but what does it mean for you and your event?

We have access to new music QUICKER. We get the songs from the same services that release them to radio, so we don’t wait for a song to chart to realize “oooh, may I should get this!” At that point, it’s too late, and you, your friends, and family already know and want the song, and we’d have to lose time at your event to download it online, or worse, tell you “sorry, I don’t have that one!” (L.A.M.E.!)

Clean edits! We get the edits that are released to radio, so they’re already pre-screened. In addition to the radio edits, some services, like one I belong to, edits songs even further to make them even more friendly to the types of functions (schools, family functions, etc.) that mobile DJ’s tend to do. You have to be careful with consumer outlets like iTunes, Amazon, etc. Many songs are tagged wrong, and you may think you’re getting a clean version, and you’re not. Or, you may get a version that says “clean,” but still has objectionable content because they only took out some of the potentially questionable content.

Backup! Because I get discs with all of the new music each month in addition to weekly downloads, I have physical copies of all my new music, and music going back many years. If something were ever to happen to one of my computers or hard drives before an event (I have backups anyway), I wouldn’t LOSE any of my library or have to scramble to find my music. Having the physical copies means I always have my complete library at my disposal. iTunes and Amazon DJs who strictly download can’t say that.

Faster than “The Cloud.” In the age where we can back everything up to the cloud, one might wonder why a DJ doesn’t just back their library up on the cloud. Many do. There are many great reasons to do this, but this is for archival purposes, and with the access times and bandwidth limitations involved in downloading music files, the cloud and cloud-based services are not an answer, or a solution, for quick recovery from a disaster. Besides, you certainly should not/would not want your DJ to be streaming the music for your event anyway. Regardless of the strength of the signal, we all know how wireless and data connections go. DJs should always play from local, physical (meaning physically-stored digital) libraries, and they should only download the occasional on-the-spot request at an event. They should never be streaming the song you’re dancing to RIGHT NOW. It’s not a matter of if, only when that goes bad. And when it does, it will be embarrassing and frustrating for everyone involved.

There are many such services available to professional DJs, not just the one I use. Some are highly specific, catering more to club and remix DJs. Others, like the service I use, focus on providing content to the mobile DJ who plays the songs people want to hear, the way they expect to her them, at all types of events. Don’t worry though – we still get enough remixes, dance-edits, and alternate versions to keep things interesting!

See more about my music library, learn more about the great care I take in helping you program your event, and see the latest charts on my website. If it’s listed in the weekly charts there, I have it for your special event, guaranteed!